Investigation Finds Political Purge Inside Trump's State Department

By Alison DurkeeAugust 16, 2019

Trump appointees reportedly harassed career employees at the Bureau of International Organization Affairs, accusing them of being “disloyal” “traitors” and part of the “Deep State.”

President Donald Trump has certainly made no secret of his dislike for government employees who haven't gone full MAGA with their effusive praise of the president. And apparently some of his appointees feel the exact same way. A new report from the State Department's Office of the Inspector General released Thursday chronicles rampant mismanagement and “mistreatment of career employees” at the department's Bureau of International Organization Affairs by Assistant Secretary of State Kevin Moley and former senior adviser Mari Stull, who were both Trump appointees. The report found evidence of “disrespectful and hostile treatment of employees,” “retaliation associated with conflicts of interest,” taking personnel actions with “improper motives”—and, naturally, “harassment” of career employees who were not believed to be sufficiently loyal to Trump.

Per the I.G.'s findings, Stull and Moley were reportedly openly hostile to career employees who were holdovers from the Obama administration, making “inappropriate accusations of disloyalty.” Stull, employees told the Inspector General, would call employees “Obama holdovers,” “traitors,” or “disloyal,” and allegedly accused certain employees of “being part of the ‘Deep State.’” The two appointees reportedly based their opinions of employees on their “perceived political views,” with Stull allegedly only making positive comments about certain career employees “because they reportedly made contributions to Republican candidates.” And Stull wasn't afraid to act when she believed employees didn't share her political beliefs. In one example described in the report, Stull took away many of one employee's job responsibilities after they accompanied members of the Congressional Black Caucus to the United Nations, seemingly largely because the delegation “consisted of only Democratic members.” Stull “accused the employee of trying to ‘thwart’ President Trump and undermine his agenda,” the report details.

In another instance, Stull allegedly cancelled a job selection process for a position seemingly because she believed the leading candidate was not “trustworthy,” due to their work with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East and “relationship with the gay and lesbian community.” Shortly after that episode, Stull reportedly met with the Joint Executive Office and asked that “descriptions for all future vacancies should ‘reflect President Trump’s agenda’ and ... ‘require conformance to the President’s beliefs.’” (The officials informed Stull that they “could not carry out her instructions.”)

Stull and Moley's mismanagement went beyond their political biases. The report also describes them as having “frequently berated employees, raised their voices, and generally engaged in unprofessional behavior toward staff”—in one instance, Stull reportedly “called [an employee's] work product ‘garbage’ and threw it at another employee”—and dismissed one employee without merit after they raised concerns about the officials' behaviors. Stull also allegedly “retaliated” against career employees with whom she disputed in her previous position at the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization. Though higher-up State Department officials raised concerns about Stull's behavior after it was first reported by Foreign Policy and asked Moley in June 2018 to make certain reforms, the report notes “the hostile treatment and other conduct described above continued into the fall of 2018.”

The mismanagement led to a mass exodus of career staff at the bureau, with the report finding that 50 out of 300 domestic employees left since Moley was instated. “Nearly all” of the former employees the I.G.'s office interviewed “stated that poor leadership of the bureau contributed to their decision to depart.” Stull, who stepped down from her position in January, has yet to respond to the allegations, while Moley has disputed their accuracy. “The behavior attributed to me regarding raising my voice, berating employees and contributing to a hostile work environment does not represent who I am or who I have ever been,” Moley told NBC News.

Democrats have responded with outrage to the report's findings, which House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Elijah Cummings said “leaves no doubt that Trump Administration political appointees have mismanaged the Department and violated the public trust.” “Today's report confirms what we feared: 'disrespectful and hostile' treatment of career employees at the State Department, including spurious accusations that public servants were 'disloyal' and improper retaliation against them,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Rep. Eliot Engel said in a statement, calling on Moley to resign or be dismissed. A State Department official told the Hill that the department accepted the report's recommendations, which call for a “corrective action plan” to address the mismanagement and for the State Department “to consider other appropriate action, including disciplinary action.”

The report comes amid a particular period of turmoil for career officials within the Trump administration. The president's open preference for officials to be Trump lackeys recently forced the resignation of Deputy Director of National Intelligence Sue Gordon, a widely-respected career official whom Trump nevertheless refused to let replace departing DNI head Dan Coats. Trump's U.S. Department of Agriculture, meanwhile, is currently facing a mass exodus of scientists and other career experts thanks to a controversial decision to move the department to Kansas City. Critics have derided the move as an effort to force out scientists—who aren't exactly Trump's biggest fans—and “drain the swamp.”

Earlier in August, Chuck Park, a U.S. Foreign Service official at the State Department, resigned from the Trump administration with a Washington Post op-ed, in which he said that while Trump supporters may accuse career officials like him of being “Deep State,” he considered himself to be a part of the “Complacent State” instead. “The Complacent State sighs when the president blocks travel by Muslim immigrants; shakes its head when he defends Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman; averts its gaze from images of children in detention camps. Then it complies with orders,” Park wrote. “I let career perks silence my conscience. I let free housing, the countdown to a pension and the prestige of representing a powerful nation overseas distract me from ideals that once seemed so clear to me. I can’t do that anymore.”

Trump stopped calling for 'very meaningful background checks' on guns after talking to the head of the NRA

I wonder when the Government will wise up and revoke the NRA's "non-profit" status.

There is no more reason to revoke the NRA's status than there is to revoke the status of MoveOn.org which advocates for the left.

Trump figured out if it works for Trudeau then why not.

"This is yet another example of Donald Trump continuing to weaponize and politicize anti-Semitism," said Halie Soifer, executive director of the Jewish Democratic Council of America. "At a time when anti-Semitic incidents have increased — due to the president's emboldening of white nationalism — Trump is repeating an anti-Semitic trope."

The NRA is a non-profit advocacy organization that does exactly what they say they do. There is no more reason to revoke the NRA's status than there is to revoke the status of MoveOn.org which advocates for the left.

The scandal embroiling the NRA, a nonprofit that pays LaPierre more than $1.4 million a year, is about money and who benefits from donations and dues paid by a reported 5 million members. But it’s also a power struggle between would-be reformers and LaPierre’s cultish grip on the organization. In April, at its national convention, NRA President Oliver North announced he would not serve a second term after he lost an attempted coup to oust La Pierre, a showdown that involved allegations of financial impropriety by LaPierre and attempted extortion by North.

A nasty divorce and lawsuits between the NRA and its longtime public relations partner, Ackerman McQueen, have revealed allegations of inflated bills, exorbitant fundraising costs and cushy jobs for the well-connected. Other revelations included a $39,000 shopping spree by LaPierre at a single clothing store, more than $200,000 in air transportation costs for a Christmas trip to the Bahamas, and an abandoned effort to have the NRA buy LaPierre a $6-million Texas mansion because he feared he would be targeted after the 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. Meanwhile, New York state Atty. Gen. Letitia James is investigating the NRA’s tax-exempt status (the nonprofit is incorporated there).

Several board members have resigned, and some have formed a movement to try to reform the NRA. Good luck with that. The NRA is governed by a board of 76 directors — well more than triple the size of boards at other nonprofits — mostly selected by a board-appointed nominating committee. Only lifetime members ($1,500 payment) are eligible to be nominated; members must have at least five consecutive years of membership to vote (one analysis found that only 7% actually do so); and only a third of the seats are up for election each year. That leaves the NRA tightly controlled by a hand-picked board of directors more focused on the preservation of internal power than following norms of proper guidance and nonprofit oversight.

Now I'll be gone the rest of the week!

Clearly, Trump is betting that base hatreds and tribalism will send him to the White House for a second term. Given modern America, that's probably a smart bet.

A link between brain damage and religious fundamentalism has now been established by scientists

Religious fundamentalism is partly the result of a functional impairment in the prefrontal cortex, new study finds

Bobby Azarian

A study published in the journal Neuropsychologia has shown that religious fundamentalism is, in part, the result of a functional impairment in a brain region known as the prefrontal cortex. The findings suggest that damage to particular areas of the prefrontal cortex indirectly promotes religious fundamentalism by diminishing cognitive flexibility and openness—a psychology term that describes a personality trait which involves dimensions like curiosity, creativity, and open-mindedness.

Religious beliefs can be thought of as socially transmitted mental representations that consist of supernatural events and entities assumed to be real. Religious beliefs differ from empirical beliefs, which are based on how the world appears to be and are updated as new evidence accumulates or when new theories with better predictive power emerge. On the other hand, religious beliefs are not usually updated in response to new evidence or scientific explanations, and are therefore strongly associated with conservatism. They are fixed and rigid, which helps promote predictability and coherence to the rules of society among individuals within the group.

Religious fundamentalism refers to an ideology that emphasizes traditional religious texts and rituals and discourages progressive thinking about religion and social issues. Fundamentalist groups generally oppose anything that questions or challenges their beliefs or way of life. For this reason, they are often aggressive towards anyone who does not share their specific set of supernatural beliefs, and towards science, as these things are seen as existential threats to their entire worldview....